The “Juice of the Future” is looming.
Loom, the brainchild of Bill Butrymowicz, VP at Jersey Shore DSD house Seaview Beverage, is a new line of juice drinks that will begin rolling out to stores and online this summer. Butrymowicz will be leading the brand as CEO while also continuing to run the distribution business that was founded by his father, using Seaview’s fleet as an immediate entry point into the market.
With production starting in the coming weeks, Loom is leans into its “Juice of the Future” tagline – replete with Alien-themed, “Space Disco” branding and flavors named Aurora Orange, Beyond Apple, Moon Punch, and Cosmic Candy Grape. Looking to disrupt a category notorious for its high sugar content, Loom contains around 15-20% real fruit juice with no added sugar; all flavors are under 35 calories with a max of 8 grams of sugar from the juice per 12 oz. bottle, according to Butrymowicz.
“I was cutting my kids’ juice with water, because the juice that you drink has 42 grams of sugar in a 12 oz. serving,” Butrymowicz told BevNET. “In my head, my thought process was it’s almost like we’re buying juice concentrate. I don’t think that people can even stomach a full glass of orange juice at this point.”
For Butrymowicz, Loom is the culmination of a lifetime in the beverage industry. In 1989 when he was 7, Butrymowicz’ father, Bill Butrymowicz, Sr., quit his job at Pepsi to found Seaview Beverage. Today, the company is a major New Jersey DSD distributor covering the Shore, but it began by selling cases out of the family garage, which Butrymowicz said he keenly watched and participated in throughout the 90s and 2000s, taking a hands-on role in all aspects of the business, from loading trucks to answering phones, while observing the rise of brands like Snapple, Fiji and SoBe.
With his father now retired, Butrymowicz has been running Seaview full time for around 15 years, he said, and those years of experience have given him a good sense for what qualities make a brand likely to succeed. He’s now using those lessons to finally make good on a longtime dream to develop his own brand from scratch.
“I created a skill set where I was able to evaluate what companies I think have a good chance of making it and what companies I think don’t,” he said, pointing to traits like marketing, go-to-market plans and their capital sources as signals to what brands have the best shot in the market.
Beyond Seaview, Butrymowicz is also an independent investor; he was a stakeholder in Bai and is currently involved in emerging brands Lemon Perfect and Recess, among others. In particular, Bai and Lemon Perfect provided him a model to follow with Loom’s formulation, creating products that compete in categories already familiar to consumers, but highlight their healthier positioning with strong, modern branding.
In addition to drawing inspiration from those brands, Butrymowicz is also working with some of the names behind them; former Bai video producer and Crook & Marker creative director Brian Tice designed the Loom bottle.
Loom’s branding was also informed by Butrymowicz’s personal passion for music. He cited Liquid Death as another inspiration, which he believes has thrived because its heavy metal-themed branding is drawn from co-founder Mike Cessario’s own personal background, and opted to draw from his own background as a former DJ (though he said he still performs on occasion for the fun of it) and his passion for electronic. funk and psychedelic music. That resulted in Loom’s “trippy” look and feel, with Butrymowicz mentioning bands like Daft Punk, Phish and the Grateful Dead as part of the vision.
For the imagery, of which the brand’s Instagram page is already filled pre-launch, Butrymowicz has commissioned a range of independent global artists dubbed the “Loom Crew” who have all contributed images in their own distinct style.
Butrymowicz has invested a significant amount of his own money to start Loom, but has also raised from angels and other investors, many of whom he said come from the industry and his connections through Seaview, including John LiDestri of manufacturer LiDestri Food & Beverage who is serving as an advisor to the brand.
While he’s still waiting on procuring a vegan certification before beginning production, Butrymowicz has already created branded siding for Seaview’s distribution trucks promoting the brand and is confident in his ability to quickly sell into key retailers once the drinks hit the streets.
“I know the margins that everybody needs to make, I know what they’re looking for in their contracts,” he said. “Like, I just know that this is gonna work.”